Synopsis

'A thousand pairs a day...' - this is the rhythm ruling the lives of workers in a Melbourne shoe factory in the 1930s, a rhythm devouring their youth, their laughter, their hopes for the future.

For those enmeshed in the life of the Modern Shoe Co. - the crippled accountant, the vindictive foreman, the inept management unable to stem the slide to financial disaster, the kind-hearted forewoman and the pathetically young girls in their first job - there is also a rhythm of love and camaraderie, of intrigue and hate, of exploitation and grinding poverty.